Free Republic

A handful of Senate Democrats sought to assure doubtful liberals that the Supreme Court justices aren’t ready to strike down their crowning achievement, standing before cameras and mics Wednesday in front of the court. One warned that doing so would ruin the court’s credibility. “This court would not only have to stretch, it would have to abandon and completely overrule a lot of modern precedent, which would do grave damage to this court, in its credibility and power,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D), a former attorney general of Connecticut. “The court commands no armies, it has no money; it depends...

Fact: David Cross once snorted cocaine at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. The actor confessed to the persistent rumor in an interview in the March issue of Playboy magazine, saying he pulled the stunt while sitting some 65 feet away from President Obama. "It wasn’t even that much cocaine. It was literally the size of, I don’t know, a tick. It was a tiny granule of coke that I put on my wrist and said, 'Watch this. I need a witness,'" Cross recalled. "And then I ducked under the table and did it. It wasn’t like I got high," he...

That’s the verdict of British writer James Delingpole, in a blog posted in the Daily Telegraph, about an article by Kevin Myers published in the Irish Independent online version, brought to our attention by a Paul Chesser Facebook post. (Got all that? Ain’t the Internet grand?) Myers’ focus is on the potentially fatal results of European wind energy, should this form of green delusion be carried to its logical extreme, and the pure destruction of wealth its massive misallocation of resources already represents (imagine hundreds of Solyndras). Thanks to members of the Michigan House and Senate, since 2008 the same...

JournalTimes.com No danger to students, authorities say as investigation continues Deputies: Parkside student confesses to creating list CHRISTINE WON and MICHAEL BURKE christine.won@journaltimes.com, mburke@journaltimes.com | Posted: Friday, February 3, 2012 4:16 pm SOMERS — Following days of reported hate crimes and heightened security at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, a student has confessed to creating the list threatening black students because she wanted greater attention to the issue, according to authorities Friday night. The suspect, whose identity was being withheld for her protection, reportedly told authorities she created the fliers — which listed 13 black students by name and threatened they...

I generally make New Year's resolutions in hopes of becoming a better person — more disciplined, healthier, or, at the very least, less pathetic. Some of these resolutions last until nightfall. Some don't. None ever sees February. This year, I'm taking a different approach. I'm going to concentrate on giving up things. Not things like smoking — been there, done that. I mean giving up on ideas I have pursued through the years into one blind alley after another. Ideas like climate change, for example. You and I both know that the earth is heating up, right? Everybody knows that,...

Only a fool believes that all those with whom he differs are bad people. Moreover, just about all of us live the reality—often within our own family—of knowing good and loving people with whom we strongly differ on political, religious, social and economic issues. That said, I have come to believe that the more committed one is to leftism, the more likely one is to become meaner. Two examples in just the past week offer compelling evidence. Prominent left-wing commentators used the way in which Rick Santorum and his wife handled the death of one of their children to attack—make...

Watch this video of strange group behavior. Effects of drug use? Mob rule psychology? Really strange people in control.

Having watched this clip all the way through several times, I still can't stop chuckling. Here's a quick primer to prepare you for what you're about to see: The video begins as civil rights pioneer Rep. John Lewis rrives at #OccupyAtlanta, hoping to express solidarity and articulate support with some brief remarks. Unfortunately for him, the Congressman is totally unacquainted with the gathering's "rules," which make the US Senate look like a model of efficiency. The group's "leader" (the hippie with the bullhorn) speaks in three-second intervals so the rest of the assembled group can chant his partial sentences back...

Antisocial personality traits predict utilitarian responses to moral dilemmas A study conducted by Daniel Bartels, Columbia Business School, Marketing, and David Pizarro, Cornell University, Psychology found that people who endorse actions consistent with an ethic of utilitarianism—the view that what is the morally right thing to do is whatever produces the best overall consequences—tend to possess psychopathic and Machiavellian personality traits.

How can the left possibly defeat a movement that they do not understand and, worse, that they purposely misunderstand? Michael Moore lies every times he opens his mouth. For him it is easier to lie than to breathe. But with that said, he is doing America and conservatives in the Tea Party a great service because the only people who listen to his bile are the left, and the more they are deceived, the easier they will be to defeat. Here is what I mean: as a military officer, I study tactics as a part of my professional development, and...

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told members of the National Restaurant Association on Monday that Americans need to “adjust” their tastes so that they like the kind of food the government believes they should eat—and “we have to make sure that what we do is create the appropriate transition.”

Jesus Christ is considered the most important and central figure in all of history for many. Yet in her debut novel, Kristen Wolf turns the biblical portrayal of the Messiah on its head by portraying Jesus as a woman. The Way, which was released in July but is noted in the September 2011 issue of The Oprah Magazine as a “Title to Pick Up Now,” transports its readers back to ancient Palestine where a young girl, Anna, struggles to comprehend her purpose in a male-dominated society. After she witnesses the brutal murder of a woman in her town, and her...

<p>First she was buoyantly up in a "dangerous" People's Park tree protesting "Everything," but now she's at Highland Hospital with a broken back, ending an eight-day protest which was a protest-in-progress.</p> <p>Her last fall from the tree was her second. She fell in her second day in the tree and was caught in the arms of a friend before she hit the ground. "Moon Shadow," who was first up, last Monday, reportedly took a plunge when—out on a limb—he helped attach a protest banner.</p>

Barbara Stanwyck: "We're both rotten!" Fred MacMurray: "Yeah - only you're a little more rotten." -"Double Indemnity" (1944) Those lines of dialogue from a classic film noir sum up the state of the two political parties in contemporary America. Both parties are rotten - how could they not be, given the complete infestation of the political system by corporate money on a scale that now requires a presidential candidate to raise upwards of a billion dollars to be competitive in the general election? Both parties are captives to corporate loot. The main reason the Democrats' health care bill will be...

Via Timothy Carney, this appears to be real. Is it real or just a goof? Kevin Williamson isn’t sure and neither am I, but given that this is the same guy who fantasized recently about the Keynesian awesomeness of an alien invasion, it’s at least a toss-up. All day long I’ve felt relieved that the quake caused only very minor damage, but now suddenly I’m bummed that the Brooklyn Bridge didn’t fall into the river. Maybe we can get DHS or the NYPD to blow it up? That’s a few thousand jobs right there.

Watching our system deal with the debt ceiling crisis — a wholly self-inflicted crisis, which may nonetheless have disastrous consequences — it’s increasingly obvious that what we’re looking at is the destructive influence of a cult that has really poisoned our political system. And no, I don’t mean the fanaticism of the right. Well, OK, that too. But my feeling about those people is that they are what they are; you might as well denounce wolves for being carnivores. Crazy is what they do and what they are. No, the cult that I see as reflecting a true moral failure...

Just talked with a good friend of mine, but sadly very liberal -- seems irreversible -- told her about the great reviews for The Undefeated, Sarah Palin documentary - her record in Alaska - and I tried to explain to her that she should at least get informed about Sarah before calling her the wilderness barbie. She then said: OK so she did a great job in Alaska, but is she able to run all US states (in all fairness, she did not say 57..). These people have an answer for everything..darn! What would you say to that - besides...

Human Events columnist (and former Deputy Press Secretary at the U.S. Department of State, Communications Director for the House Majority Whip, and Associate Producer at ABC News), Emily Miller attempted to ask Representative Anthony Weiner some questions about the infamous Twitter scandal. Here's what went down: "I got stuck inches from this disgusting Anthony Weiner as he talked to reporters outside the House chamber. He made over six lewd jokes that were so gross, I was bright red and tried to back away from him." Some of the representative comments: I asked Anthony Weiner if there are photos of him...

Washington D.C., May 10, 2011 / 01:36 pm (CNA).- A United States attorney has indicted a man who described himself as a “pro-choice terrorist” with six counts of making interstate threats against pro-life advocates such as Priests for Life director Father Frank Pavone and Princeton University law professor Robert P. George. New York resident Theodore Shulman, 49, has plead not guilty to six counts of communicating interstate threats. The charges each carry a maximum five-year sentence and were filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York. Shulman allegedly left a threatening voice mail message with the Calif.-based...

If your sister were among the nearly 3,000 people murdered in the World Trade Center on 9/11, how would you react to Osama Bin Laden's death? More specifically, if you were to write an opinion piece on the subject for a major newspaper, what would you most want to communicate?One would think that anyone who had lost a loved one on 9/11 would write about bin Laden's guilt, about evil and about experiencing some degree of moral and emotional satisfaction that the loved one's murderer had been killed by American forces.But not Robert Klitzman, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia...